OSaBC Tales - Of Avatars and Elder Ones
by SLotH4
Summary: A creature as old as time, plucking strings where it must to ensure the echoes resonate in a cosmic symphony. And what of those small creatures that inhabit those strings, does it even notice them in their ignorance? A series of vignettes set in LogicalPremise's "Premiseverse."


**OSaBC Tales - Of Avatars and Elder Ones**

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**A/N:** _Shout-out to the talented **Dominic Qwek** from __**domqwek dot com**__. The FFnet cover-image is one of his works known as **"Oracle**.**"**_

_Go check out his work, ASAP!_

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Sara Shepard made her way through the ancient ruin with Liara and Garrus in tow. It was a world without a name – uncharted and unknown. It came to her in a dream, a sense of need that drew her to this place. At first it confused her – nothing more than forgotten visions between her ever-present nightmares – but over time, it grew more persistent. Until one day, she told Liara. The asari was patient and eager to help, but when she bonded with Shepard and searched for the memory, she found nothing.

For weeks the visions and urges plagued her. Sometimes she would glimpse the stars of an unfamiliar night sky. Other times she walked through these very ruins when they were newly hewn. Near the end, she could see someone reaching out to her, cloaked in amber silk. In a fit of anger, she cursed the visions and drew the disdaining attention of Vigil. She was able to describe the stars in enough detail that the AI could extrapolate a possible region of space. And when she saw the star systems displayed on the galaxy map, one of them called out to her like a mother to a cub.

Thus, they came to this unknown world, to this forgotten ruin. What they found was a simple stone circle, concentric rings of pillars around a black granite plinth. The place was deserted, but she felt on edge. Sara _knew_ she was being watched.

She reached the base of the plinth, but came to a stop as all the ambient noise around her dissipated. She drew her shotgun and whipped around, looking for the cause of the disturbance. What she saw was more horrifying than anything the Collectors had thrown at her… the world was frozen in place. Liara and Garrus were deathly still, each carrying a wary, unblinking expression.

And it wasn't some biotic barrier; even the flowing water of a nearby brook had ceased to move. Birds in flight like floating statues.

In this place… time stood still.

**"The siren's call is difficult to resist."**

Sara whipped around and brought her ODIN to bear. Standing before the plinth, not two meters away, was a creature she'd never laid eyes upon before. Wisps of amber shadows swirled around like drops of blood in water, light bending and warping around the edges where the feet should be. A face that wasn't a face, but a mask of bone or stone, bereft of nose and mouth – pulsating veins branched out across the 'brow,' elastic in a way bone shouldn't be. The only feature visible was a ring of glowing red runes that lazily rotated clockwise, giving the impression of a cyclops – on closer inspection, the runes were not attached to the mask, but rather, floated before it like holograms. Hovering a few centimeters above the crown of its head was a deformed crescent of stony coral, curving downward and framing its 'face' – fragments of the shattered tips defying gravity with their oscillations. Vaguely humanoid, but with odd proportions and strangely angled limbs – her eyes having trouble following the limbs as numerous arms would fade in and out of existence, each one out of focus, as if it wasn't real.

There was a ring in her ear as she stared at this thing before her – distinct and uncomfortable – like the thrum of the cosmos, but more acute.

**"It will give us a moment to talk."**

"Who are you?!" Sara demanded, before taking in the creature's oily visage, "_What_ are you?!"

**"To the arthenn, I was 'Dû Bess.' To the Inusannon, I was 'Tlhob.' To the sethani, I was 'Ruug'la'ruk,' "** the creature explained as images of dead races pulsed in Sara's mind, **"In each language it is the same."**

"The Elder One," Sara finished, her mind instantly translating the Prothean word as an image of a four-eyed face faded from sight.

**"Only the ylaha and their thralls break the pattern."** Sara's vision pulsed with a Reaper, except it wasn't a Reaper, it was too… organic. **"They call me 'Ab'anon.' Their word for 'foreign thing.' "**

"Seems appropriate," she said, taking in the odd undulations of the Elder One's form, as spindly arms continued fading in and out of reality around the main body, "Wait a minute… 'call,' not 'called'? They're still alive?"

**"Some are, yes. You know them as 'Leviathans.' Or _will_. Perhaps that has not come to pass."**

"Not come to— What does that mean?"

**"It is the legacy of my Benefactors. To see the stream as it branches and coalesces again and again. How does one separate the waters within the estuary? It is all the same color once tangled."**

Sara stared, doing her best to tamp down her confused fear. Her palms were slick with artificial sweat. The myomer bundles within her thighs were coiled and tense. What could she do? Attack? Did she have enough gun? Flee? Where would she go? Would Liara and Garrus stay frozen forever? Would this thing predict her actions before she even conceived them?

As she stared into the slowly spinning eye, she noticed that the symbols were three-dimensional, their shapes changing depending on the angle she viewed them. Did that change their meaning? Did they have a meaning in the first place?

Swallowing a lump in her throat, Sara squared her shoulders and addressed the creature, "What have you done? How did you freeze time like this?"

The ruby-red runes of its eye spun faster. Shrinking before splitting into two strings that curled into a pair of smaller runic eyes where a human would expect them – each slowly rotating in the opposite direction. The mask then shifted around the eyes, sinking into two dark pits that glowed ominously at the core as the being analyzed the woman. **"Thoughts are fast. Time is relative, and difficult to follow in these lower spaces."**

"What do you mean?"

**"The rules are different in these quiet places, where time is immovable. My home was different, it would sing to those who could hear it."** The Elder One's body shook like a hanar, as if with disdain – its eyes glowing green before shifting back to red. **"You wouldn't understand. You can no more comprehend true time then a two-dimensional intelligence could comprehend depth. The parasite never concerned itself with anything more than consumption. Its mind was too limited."**

"I… don't know how to respond to that first part. As for the second, should I be worried about this 'parasite'?"

**"No, it is sealed and of no consequence. The galaxy it inhabited is quite far away. There is no danger."** The Elder One's limbs coalesced for a moment before uncertainty returned to its form. **"Tell me, Sara, do you know what makes you _you_?"**

Sara watched the Elder One, but did not answer, content in keeping her ODIN trained on its face – careful to keep the tremor out of her hands.

**"Struggle and pain."** One arm lifted, but remained fuzzy and unfocused. Additional arms reverberated around it until they all coalesced into focus – a single arm pointing a single spider-like finger at her. **"You are the product of circumstance. A blade at the throat of a world that cast you aside."**

"I don't need psych eval, buddy. I get my fill from Chambers. Now I need some answers, so unless you want me to ventilate your fucking head, start talking."

**"The very air you breathe is motionless before me. Threats cannot stop the Darkness. What words could frighten the void?"**

"I swear to Christ, if you don't stop talking in riddles, I'm gonna fucking kill you!"

**"Many have tried, few have succeeded,"** the Elder One dismissed as its scarlet runic eyes appraised the Spectre, **"You are afraid. Of me, of the machines. There is wisdom in dread."**

Sara glared. She was wary, but chose to holster her shotgun regardless. With time frozen like this, it was probably useless anyway. "What do you know of the Reapers?"

**"They struggle against inevitability. Fearful that their efforts are in vain, that they can never surpass those who built them."**

The world around them began to darken; Sara turned in alarm as it swallowed her friends and snatched them from her sight. On instinct, she flared her biotics as she turned to confront the Elder One. But upon seeing it, her vision cleared, and she found herself in a familiar alleyway. It had been years since she'd been there, but it was a place she would always have trouble forgetting.

"This is…" Sara started, but the words refused to come.

**"Where your journey began,"** the Elder One intoned from beside her.

Sara relaxed her biotics and made her way to the door. As she reached for the panel, the door slid to the side and a dark-skinned hand pulled her within. Her father threw her against the wall before backhanding her. She fell to the floor with a bloody lip, only to receive a hard kick to the side. Her father grabbed her by the hair as he slapped her again and again, his breath thick with the stale heat of cheap liquor and his skin oily from the red sand he'd injected. She threw punches and kicks, but found her limbs much too weak to stop the man – that's when she realized, to her horror, that she was once more a child. She managed to pull away and ran into the bedroom, crawling under the box spring.

**"Welcome home,"** the Elder One said from a chair near the bed.

Sara clambered under the bed, unyielding fury bubbling up at her young body's inability to fight back. In just a few short years she'd be able to crush the monster grabbing at her legs, but her body was still too young.

The Elder One watched the child struggle against her father. **"You became more. Achieved more. Your contemporaries failed where you flourished, but your growth is incomplete."**

The grip on her ankle relented as her father dissolved away and the room shifted from a dirty hovel to a dirty warehouse. Little Sara found herself on a filthy, stained mattress with tricorders hovering about while men and women cheered at the spectacle.

**"The others failed and were beneath my notice,"** the Elder One spoke from the edge of the crowd, its voice heard over the cheers despite being a near-whisper, **"Only you were able to draw my attention. I wonder what you'll do with it."**

"Stop this! Please!" Sara screamed as calloused hands held her down and tore at her clothes, unheeding of her violent protests.

The scene shifted again after a time, and Sara found herself in a familiar place. She was older, wiser even… and she was Red. She saw what passed for a family in the dilapidated apartment they used as a base. She saw Finch over at the dining table counting credit chits and divvying out Captain Yong Li's cut of the profits.

**"A family protects its own,"** the Elder One explained, **"but you have never known such."**

Sara spun around in a rage. "Bullshit! I have Liara! I have Garrus!"

**"And look how fragile your connections are,"** it declared as it drifted through the apartment amongst the oblivious ghosts of the past, **"Love withers when ignored."**

"Fuck you!"

The Elder One did not respond. Sara glared at it until her body was compelled by memory to turn around. She saw the leader of the 10th Street Reds, Jethro Taylor, walking up to her with his Lieutenant.

"The boys and me have been talking. This Alliance puke who saved you, he could make a handsome ransom," Taylor said with grimy smile, quietly laughing at how clever his rhymes were.

"No, he's a good man. He doesn't deserve that," Sara declared as if reading from a script. It was the same thing she'd said to them so many years ago, and the response was just as rehearsed: they laughed.

"Relax, Sinthia," the Lieutenant said between laughs, "You can still fuck him if you want."

Sara listened as the growing laughter dimmed, only to be replaced by a quiet hum. She watched as her body moved and slaughtered those she knew as kin. And in a flash, it was over; her lungs burned and her eyes stung. Tears washed away the blood that plastered her cheeks, dripping away to land on the faded asphalt of the roof she now stood upon.

**"There can be no freedom for those shackled to weakness,"** the Elder One intoned, **"It took the kindness of a stranger for you to break those chains."**

"…David gave me hope. The world shat on me at every opportunity… he was the first bright spot I'd seen," Sara said, voice detached as she took in the carnage down at street-level. The bodies of rival gang members strewn about like fallen leaves.

**"The trials and tribulations I've forced upon you have broken many. Most wither and die… failure is best forgotten."**

Sara looked at the creature with indignant rage and opened her mouth to question, "The fuck you mean 'forced on me'?!"

The creature's answer never came, for as soon as the words left her lips, she was struck in the chest by a stun bolt. Her body seized up and collapsed as the electricity shot through her muscles and shorted out her depleted biotics. She held up a remote detonator in her shaking hand as the SWAT team approached – the sight forcing them to hold position. All around them, hidden until now, were demo packs of C-4 and homemade nail bombs filled with plastique.

Sara pushed her back up against the wall, blood pouring from the bullet wounds in her stomach. Her vision became fuzzy… and then she saw him. Lieutenant David Anderson – still wrapped in bandages and medi-gel – pushed past the NYARC SWAT team and made his way over. His words were soothing, and for the first time in her life, she felt at peace. Anderson made his plea and Sara accepted, just as unconsciousness overtook her.

She came to with a start, standing at attention before the Board of Inquiry. She remembered this day well… it nearly ended with her execution.

"Corporal Shepard, you stand before us, accused of striking a Commissar in the line of duty. Of obstruction of justice. What say you?"

"Dunn did nothing wrong. I did what I felt was right, to protect my team," Sara said, body ramrod straight, voice clipped and succinct.

"And you think yourself wiser than a Commissar? One whose life is dedicated to maintaining the peace? Whose sense of justice is absolute?"

The members of the Board sat behind an imposing panel desk high above – far higher than the real desk had been. Perhaps it was a reflection of her fear, a distortion of reality as her emotions warped her memories. Sitting behind them, on a raised throne of broken, undulating bodies sat the amber clad form of the Elder One. As Sara looked closer, she could make out the uniforms of Penal Legionnaires – some she recognized as troublemakers, 'victims' of this very Board.

"There is more to the universe than black and white, sir. Dunn is no slaver, no rapist. His 'crime' was inconsequential and would've been completely ignored if he weren't an ex-Z Class."

**"Those who stand in judgment must be exemplars. But who stands in judgment of them?"**

"It is our judgment that you acted in good faith, that you were not inciting subversion or attempting to undermine the role of the Commissariat. Thus, we rule that you shall not be executed."

Sara felt the wisp of relief in the back of her mind, a memory of that day… she knew it wouldn't last.

"However, striking a Commissar is a serious offense, one not to be taken lightly. We hereby order you remanded to Section 23 for disciplinary action."

The courtroom disappeared and Sara felt her arms wretched behind her back and chained to the wall. Too low to stand, and too high to rest.

**"The master is chained while the machines destroy what they see as inferior. The power of a god can corrupt even the divine mechanism."**

"You… mean… the Reapers?" Sara asked as she struggled to catch her breath, "What… are they?" Her muscles strained and begged for relief from the Herculean task. How many days had they kept her like this?

**"The False Ascended are but a pale imitation of something greater. The legacy of my contemporaries."**

"Your people… created… the Reapers?"

**"My people made them necessary."**

"The fuck does that mean?!" Sara screamed before gasping for breath once more.

The Elder One remained stoic as it dissolved into the shadows that consumed the world around them. As her wrists were freed and her pain dissipated, she was struck by a new sense, the smell of smoke and burnt flesh assaulted her nose, the tremors of exhaustion left her limbs slightly numb, her perception was colored by studiously controlled rage. The memories hit her like a freight train and she knew exactly where she was… Torfan.

Sara and her team broke into the pirate commander's quarters. They were lavishly decorated, but bereft of life… for the most part. There was a marble island in the common area upon which laid a body, still breathing the incense-infused air. The child's limbs were shackled, arms out wide and legs spread eagle. The kid was a mess, a patina of blood and viscera marring an otherwise pristine edifice. Chunks of flesh had been hewn off and prepared with herbs and vegetables from Khar'shan.

Sara saw her hand move and draw her pistol. Tears poured from grateful eyes as she ended their suffering.

**"Killing is a choice,"** the Elder One whispered in the back of her mind just before the team's communicator flared to life.

_"All units, pull back and regroup at fallback point delta."_

Sara ignored the order and pressed forward, leaving her team behind. The world melted and reformed in another room, with Rai's cooling body on the floor and Sara's hands wrapped around Sandra's slender throat. Sara growled in fury as she started to punch her onetime lover in the face. Crying out in anguish as she held her down with biotics and shot her between the eyes.

The room melted away and Sara bore witness to her Marines as the batarian pillboxes cut them down.

The Elder One's voice sounded once more on the edge of her perception, **"Vengeance has a price."**

A hand reached out of the shadows and grabbed her by the shirt collar. "I trusted you, Shepard!" Major Kyle screamed, gesturing with his free hand as two Marines fell to a storm of bullets, "How could you let my boys die like that?!"

The Lion of Mindoir disappeared in cloud of smoke and shadow. As her vision cleared, Sara beheld the true horror of Torfan, as vested children slowly plodded toward her and her team, tears in their eyes as they walked toward death, whispering quiet apologies between sobs.

Her weapon came up with but a moment of hesitation. At her side was an ancient warrior who knew death and atrocity as if they were kin. It was Urdnot Wrex who first pulled the trigger, reptilian eyes that bespoke of unbridled fury at the deaths of such young pups.

As the bullets flew, the bald heads fell one by one.

**"An alliance with the enemy is a rare thing."**

"Wrex saw through their bullshit. Some things are more important than credits."

The bodies and carnage melted away and Sarah was once more standing at attention, only this time she was on a stage with other Marines as they each received their medals. The Alliance President walked over and affixed the Star of Terra to her lapel and shook her good hand.

The room flashed and Sara saw the High Lords of Sol arrayed in their seats, only for it to morph and change until they were replaced by other men and women, with old national flags not seen since the Days of Iron decorating the walls. And then it was gone.

Sara looked around, but all that remained was an empty void. "…The hell was that?"

**"A whisper of possibility,"** the Elder One said, materializing behind her, **"I have seen your people rise to greatness, and despair at their station. I have seen you grow immortal, and die out in ignominy."**

"Wait, are humans in every reality?"

**"Such an arrogant question," **the Elder One said, its voice carrying an amused lilt, **"You occupy many, but not all. There was one reality where humanity was utterly alone… their greed created hunger that consumed them."**

The visions shifted again and the two of them floated before the Earth.

**"There are infinite alternate realities, but few realize the depth of this truth. There are also infinite identical realities for each variation."**

Sara watched as the Earth multiplied before her eyes. Some blue and pristine, others tan and barren. Then there was the familiar green and brown she'd grown up with. Poisoned oceans gleaming like a dirty emerald.

"I've heard stories about parallel universes. It's a crazy idea," Sara said, her expression growing somber, "It means there's a place where I never suffered…"

**"You would have remained irrelevant with such a life."**

"Maybe, but I think if I had the option, I would have chosen that over this."

**"It is a dangerous thing to ask 'what-if.' It leads to regret and melancholy, when one should have an eye to the future. 'What-if' is only relevant to those of us who can walk through time, but there is power in such knowledge. My people exist on but one world, and yet the empire we commanded was infinite."**

"You… conquered other realities?"

**"My people worshipped power they could not comprehend. They embraced their shackles and cheered as the mirrors shattered." **The glowing circles of runes contracted slightly in irritation; the display of emotion so subtle it might have gone unnoticed but for the change from red to angry fuchsia. **"I have existed since time immemorial. Eons have passed; the stars themselves have died before my eyes only to be reborn. And yet here I am before you. You must ask _why_."**

Sara stared at the creature, tracing the edge of its mask of bone before turning back to the grid of infinite Earths. "You want something from me."

**"What could you possibly have to offer?"** the Elder One sneered, its eyes shining in yellow.

"I…?" Sara wracked her memories, replaying the creature's words. Then it struck her. "A servant, a purpose… you molded me into a weapon."

The Elder One did not react outwardly, but its eyes glittered with quiet approval – individual runes turning blue in alternating hues. **"Every Cycle has its heroes; I make sure they're ready when the time comes. And occasionally, I must intercede to protect my investments."**

Sara blinked and took in the broken fragments of the original _Normandy_. The dark of space pierced by the amber light of the Collector ship's cannon. Bits of melted hull floating and cooling. It was a moment in time, completely frozen before her eyes. And then she saw something, a slight curve in the particle beam mere meters from the _Normandy_.

Moving her eyes, she saw the beam piercing her body and shearing off an arm. Without the curve of space, it would have taken her head.

"You protected me?"

**"The branches of possibility were immutable without divine intervention. The spirit of the Inusannon – primitive and banal as it is – could make you better, but it cannot perform miracles."**

"Must be nice to think bringing the dead back to life isn't miraculous."

**"Death is a concern of the mundane, Sara. Some of us are beyond such considerations."** The Elder One grew contemplative, gesturing with several out of focus arms that coalesced into a six-fingered hand – its thumbs coming together in a loop. **"There was a man, mortal and frail, but with power inconceivable. He could kill a planet with a thought or create life on a whim. But he lacked _vision_. Vision beyond his station. He eventually gained perspective, only to find himself chained to the higher plane of existence. That is the best a mortal like you can hope for. You may gain perspective, but you will never possess the mindset needed to interpret it. Such is the weakness of your flesh. You are forever beneath those above, but I do not judge you for it."**

"How generous of you," said Sara, pinching the bridge of her nose – the familiar action calming her frayed nerves, "We still haven't discussed your influence on my childhood."

The Elder One became… somber? Contemplative? It was so hard to tell. **"How does one grow without overcoming tribulation? To face the False Ascended requires fortitude. Fortitude is not innate; it must be claimed."**

"And that justifies my life? What they did to me?"

**"Yes. Any price is worth paying if the alternative is extinction. But you misunderstand, Sara, remember, you are only unique in that you rose above. Millions more could not. Trillions more failed in past Cycles. I dislike spreading such suffering, but my Benefactors enforce certain… restrictions."** The Elder One undulated its body again in irritation. **"I could destroy the False Ascended with a thought, but I cannot overcome their mandate and risk vibrating the Tapestry into nonexistence. Thus, I must craft a weapon from this reality. In the last Cycle it was Javik. In this Cycle, it is you. And yet, with all this effort and investment, I know this Cycle will fail."**

"Fuck you!" Sara screamed as she shoved an angry finger in the creature's face, "And fuck your _Benefactors_! We'll push back those machines and win this war!"

**"The gods themselves were cast down, and yet you expect victory? Such hubris."**

"Fortitude, not hubris."

**"The Cycles will not be ended by you and yours. It will be the culmination of eons of machinations by those like me. You should not look to such a future with hope, Sara, those that pluck the strings are awesome and terrible in equal measure. If your species survives, it will be incidental."** The Elder One's form began to glow, the amber wisps turning to yellow luminescence. **"No matter the outcome, Sara, you are key to this Cycle's conclusion. Such is the purpose of the Fulcrum."**

"The what?" Sara asked incredulously as her vision turned white in the blinding light of the ancient being.

She had to blink away the stars in her vision – an odd concept for one with artificial eyes. She was once more standing at the granite plinth, sound filling her ears. Of running water and cawing birds. The rustle of leaves in the wind and the snapping of twigs underfoot. She turned to see her friends, and breathed a sigh of relief as they returned her gaze.

The trio set about exploring the ruins, but Sara felt a sense of understanding that had not been present when they'd landed. No matter what they found, she would leave with answers… and even more questions.


End file.
